Romney urges grads to honor family commitmentsLYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has shaped his life, but he barely mentioned it as he spoke to graduates at an evangelical university Saturday. And he hardly touched on hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage, instead offering a broad-based defense of values like family and hard work. “Culture — what you believe, what you value, how you live — matters,” Romney told graduates gathered in the football stadium on ...

Personal ties can change gay marriage attitudesSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In revealing his support for same-sex marriage, President Barack Obama attributed his change in thinking to a series of key conversations and experiences. Talking to members of his staff and gay service members in committed relationships made it more difficult to justify why they should not have the right to marry, he said. Just as influential in his thinking, according to Obama, were dinnertime conversations with his 13- ...

Rescued girl tells sister: ’Now we can go home’GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) — Days of grueling searches for two young girls and the kidnapper who killed their mother and sister led to the kind of terrain that favors the hunted — high hardwoods and deep ravines near a red-brick church perched on a hill. Specially trained officers had come up empty-handed for days but were following another lead Thursday evening after Adam Mayes was put on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List. Dozens of tips turned up nothi...

3 Boston University students killed in New Zealand crashBOSTON (AP) — With graduation approaching, a time for celebration turned somber at Boston University on Saturday as students who were packing up at the end of the school year learned that three classmates studying in New Zealand were killed when their minivan crashed during a weekend trip. At least five other students were injured in the accident early Saturday, including one who was in critical condition. Boston University spokesman Colin Ril...

Officer: Military could learn from civilian courtsArmy Staff Sgt. Ryan Miller knew that deserting his post was a serious crime. But, by then, he had a lot more on his mind and heart than his job. Back in 2003-2004, while Miller was deployed as a cavalry scout in Afghanistan, his father died, his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and he was facing divorce. During his second tour, this time in Iraq, his best friend was killed by a roadside bomb. A few months before his November 2007 serve-out d...

Connecticut teen’s body spray sets off school fire alarmMIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) — Officials said a fire alarm that went off at a Connecticut high school was activated by a student’s “overabundance” of body spray in a locker room. Firefighters were called to Middletown High School shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday. Officials told The Middletown Press the student used an excessive amount of the scented spray and created a cloud of mist right below a heat sensor, which tripped the fire alarm. Firefighters ...

Hudson family slayings suspect convicted of murderCHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago jury on Friday convicted Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s former brother-in-law of murdering her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in what prosecutors’ described as an act of vengeance by a jilted husband. Hudson, who expressed her undisguised disdain for William Balfour when she took the witness stand and who endured weeks of excruciating testimony about the October 2008 killings, was overcome with emotion as the ve...

Again? Walmart’s rep takes another beatingNEW YORK (AP) — In business, you’re only as good as your last good deed. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, in recent years has tried to repair a reputation that’s been damaged by decades of criticism and legal troubles. Community activists have blamed it for damaging the neighborhoods where it builds its stores. Labor groups have lambasted it for not treating its workers well. And politicians have called it a poor steward of the environme...

Mitt Romney’s ’hijinks’ seen as bullying todayNEW YORK (AP) — When Mitt Romney was a good-looking teen in the buttoned-up ‘60s, corporal punishment was the norm and bullying had a different, more acceptable name: hijinks. Yet in today’s zero-tolerance world when it comes to, well, just about everything, things haven’t changed all that much for young victims of bullies. Definitions have tightened, become law, but bullying is far from over. “Bullying’s never going to go away,” said one crus...

Obama basks again in Hollywood glory, but at cost?Under a tent on George Clooney’s basketball court, the cheers were loud and warm for President Barack Obama. “I want to thank Clooney for letting us use his basketball court,” Obama quipped to a glittery crowd that included Barbra Streisand, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Salma Hayek and Tobey Maguire. “This guy has been talking smack about his basketball game ever since I’ve known him.” It can’t feel too shabby to be applauded by Barbra, Salm...

Authorities: Kidnapped girls didn’t eat for daysGUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) — Hope was fading that two young sisters abducted from their Tennessee home would be found alive two weeks after they vanished: Their kidnapper had already killed their mother and sister, and he was armed with a pistol as officers closed in. Yet 12-year-old Alexandria and 8-year-old Kyliyah Bain went home to their father Friday alive, with no apparent injuries other than being tired, scared and itchy from poison ivy. They t...

F-16 jets intercept small plane as Obama leaves LALOS ANGELES (AP) — Two F-16 fighter jets intercepted a small private plane that violated restricted airspace Friday as President Barack Obama was about to depart from Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force One, authorities said. The North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled the two jets that intercepted the Piper 28 aircraft over northeast Los Angeles at approximately 9:45 a.m. PDT, and followed it until it landed about fi...

AIDS fight enters new phase with prevention pillCHICAGO (AP) — Condoms and other safe-sex practices have accomplished only so much. Now the 30-year battle against AIDS is on the verge of a radical new phase, with the government expected to endorse a once-a-day pill to prevent infection with the virus. Some doctors are already giving patients the drug, Truvada, to ward off infection. But Food and Drug Administration approval would expand that practice and could make the highly expensive medi...

Judge refuses to dismiss John Edwards chargesGREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge refused to throw out campaign corruption charges against John Edwards on Friday, meaning the former presidential hopeful will have to present his case to a jury. Lawyers for Edwards argued before U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles that prosecutors failed to prove the 2008 candidate intentionally violated the law or that some of the alleged offenses actually occurred in the Middle District of N...

Many blacks shrug off Obama’s new view on gaysARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — Like many black Americans, Dorsey Jackson does not believe in gay marriage, but he wasn’t disillusioned when Barack Obama became the first president to support it. The windows of his suburban Philadelphia barbershop still display an “Obama 2012” placard and another that reads “We’ve Got His Back.” If Obama needs to endorse same-sex marriage to be re-elected, said Jackson, so be it: “Look, man — by any means necessary.” With...

FDA reviews first rapid, take-home test for HIVWASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration is considering approval of the first over-the-counter HIV test that would allow consumers to quickly test themselves for the virus at home, without medical supervision. FDA reviewers said Friday the OraQuick In-Home HIV test could play a significant role in slowing the spread of HIV, according to briefing documents posted online. But they also raised concerns about the accuracy of the test, a ...

Calls to toughen regulation follow JPMorgan lossWASHINGTON (AP) — JPMorgan Chase faced intense criticism Friday for claiming that a surprise $2 billion loss by one of its trading groups was the result of a sloppy but well-intentioned strategy to manage financial risk. More than three years after the financial industry almost collapsed, the colossal misfire was cited as proof that big banks still do not understand the threats posed by their own speculation. “It just shows they can’t manage r...

Kidnap-slaying suspect kills himself; 2 girls OKGUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) — As a SWAT team closed in, a fugitive accused of killing a Tennessee mother and daughter before disappearing for nearly two weeks with her two other children killed himself Thursday evening, allowing authorities to safely recover the kidnapped girls, police said. Adam Mayes, 35, shot himself in the head after authorities, acting on a tip, found him and the girls near New Albany, Miss., said Guntown Police Chief Michael Hal...

Obama criticizes Romney as ’backwards on equality’SEATTLE (AP) — President Barack Obama wasted little time casting Republican rival Mitt Romney as “backwards on equality” on Thursday, eager to transform his historic embrace of same-sex marriage into donor enthusiasm and grassroots vigor. Just one day after announcing his support of the top gay rights issue, Obama was attending a lavish West Coast fundraiser hosted by actor George Clooney in Los Angeles’ Studio City area, the heart of celebrit...

Change to top of WTC raises questions over heightNEW YORK (AP) — A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America’s tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building’s developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair i...